fil·a·ment

(fĭl′ə-mənt)

1. A fine or very thin thread or fiber: filaments of cloth; filaments of flax.

2. A slender or threadlike structure or part, especially:

a. A fine wire that is heated electrically to produce light in an incandescent lamp.

b. The stalk that bears the anther in the stamen of a flower.

c. A chainlike series of cells, as in many algae.

d. A long thin cellular structure characteristic of many fungi, usually having multiple nuclei and often divided by septa.

e. Any of various long thin celestial objects or phenomena, such as a solar filament.

[New Latin fīlāmentum, from Late Latin fīlāre, to spin, from Latin fīlum, thread; see g^whī- in Indo-European roots.]

fil′a·men′tous (-mĕn′təs), fil′a·men′ta·ry (-mĕn′tə-rē, -mĕn′trē) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

filament

(ˈfɪləmənt)

1. (Electrical Engineering) the thin wire, usually tungsten, inside a light bulb that emits light when heated to incandescence by an electric current

2. (Electrical Engineering) electronics a high-resistance wire or ribbon, forming the cathode in some valves

3. (Textiles) a single strand of a natural or synthetic fibre; fibril

4. (Botany) botany

a. the stalk of a stamen

b. any of the long slender chains of cells into which some algae and fungi are divided

5. (Zoology) ornithol the barb of a down feather

6. (Anatomy) anatomy any slender structure or part, such as the tail of a spermatozoon; filum

(Astronomy) a long structure of relatively cool material in the solar corona

[C16: from New Latin fīlāmentum, from Medieval Latin fīlāre to spin, from Latin fīlum thread]

filamentary, ˌfilaˈmentous adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fil•a•ment

(ˈfɪl ə mənt)

n.

1. a very fine thread or threadlike structure; a fiber or fibril: filaments of gold.

2. the stalklike portion of a stamen, supporting the anther.

3. (in an incandescent lamp) the threadlike conductor, often of tungsten, that is heated to incandescence by the passage of current.

4. the heating element of a vacuum tube, resembling the filament in an incandescent lamp.

[1585–95; < New Latin fīlāmentum < Late Latin fīlā(re)(see file¹)]

fil`a•men′ta•ry (-ˈmɛn tə ri) fil`a•men′tous, adj.

fil·a·ment

(fĭl′ə-mənt)

1. A fine or slender thread, wire, or fiber.

2. The part of a stamen that supports the anther of a flower; the stalk of a stamen. See more at flower.

3. A fine wire that is enclosed in the bulb of an incandescent lamp and gives off light when an electric current is passed through it.

4. A wire that acts as the cathode in some electron tubes when it is heated with an electric current.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	filament - a very slender natural or synthetic fiber fibril, strand barb - one of the parallel filaments projecting from the main shaft of a feather cobweb, gossamer - filaments from a web that was spun by a spider chromatid - one of two identical strands into which a chromosome splits during mitosis myofibril, myofibrilla, sarcostyle - one of many contractile filaments that make up a striated muscle fiber rhizoid - any of various slender filaments that function as roots in mosses and ferns and fungi etc hypha - any of the threadlike filaments forming the mycelium of a fungus paraphysis - a sterile simple or branched filament or hair borne among sporangia; may be pointed or clubbed fiber, fibre - a slender and greatly elongated substance capable of being spun into yarn
	2.	filament - the stalk of a stamen stalk, stem - a slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ
	3.	filament - a threadlike structure (as a chainlike series of cells) filum anatomical structure, bodily structure, body structure, complex body part, structure - a particular complex anatomical part of a living thing; "he has good bone structure" pilus, hair - any of the cylindrical filaments characteristically growing from the epidermis of a mammal; "there is a hair in my soup"
	4.	filament - a thin wire (usually tungsten) that is heated white hot by the passage of an electric current electric light, electric-light bulb, incandescent lamp, light bulb, lightbulb, bulb - electric lamp consisting of a transparent or translucent glass housing containing a wire filament (usually tungsten) that emits light when heated by electricity conducting wire, wire - a metal conductor that carries electricity over a distance

filament

noun strand, string, wire, fibre, thread, staple, wisp, cilium (Biology & Zoology), fibril, pile Some models use a carbon filament.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

filament

noun

A very fine continuous strand:

fiber, fibril, thread.

Translations

خَيط، سِلْك

vláknodráteknitka

glødetråd

Faden

νήμα

filamento

hehkulankakuitupalhosäie

filament

izzószál

hárfínn òráîur

filamento fibra

siūlelisvielelė

kvēldiegspavediens

glødetråd tynn tråd

flaman tel

灯丝细丝

filament

[ˈfɪləmənt] N (Elec) → filamento m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

filament

[ˈfɪləmənt] n → filament m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

filament

n (Elec) → (Glüh- or Heiz)faden m; (Bot) → Staubfaden m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

filament

[ˈfɪləmənt] n → filamento

filament

(ˈfiləmənt) noun

something very thin shaped like a thread, especially the thin wire in an electric light bulb.

fil·a·ment

n. filamento, fibra o hilo fino.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Filament by filament, these secret and undreamable bonds were being established.

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Not a filament, not a ribbon, however thin they might be, but kept as straight as a rod of iron.

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Meanwhile Katharine and Rodney drew further ahead, and Denham kept, if that is the right expression for an involuntary action, one filament of his mind upon them, while with the rest of his intelligence he sought to understand what Sandys was saying.

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Sometimes a roughly-built sawmill appears in a picturesque position, with its stacks of long pine trunks with the bark peeled off, and its mill stream, brought from the bed of the torrent in great square wooden pipes, with masses of dripping filament issuing from every crack.

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Every woollen filament of our garments, every hair of our heads and faces, was jewelled with a crystal globule.

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For five or six feet from the trunk, which had at the surface of the ground a diameter of several inches, it ran downward, single and straight, into a loose, friable earth; then it divided and subdivided into rootlets, fibers and filaments, most curiously interwoven.

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But as if this vast local power in the tendinous tail were not enough, the whole bulk of the leviathan is knit over with a warp and woof of muscular fibres and filaments, which passing on either side the loins and running down into the flukes, insensibly blend with them, and largely contribute to their might; so that in the tail the confluent measureless force of the whole whale seems concentrated to a point.

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Large trees are about us, and from their branches hang gray filaments of moss, while great creepers, like monstrous serpents, curl around the trunks and writhe in tangles through the air.

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He wore an odd little sleek crisp flaxen wig, setting very close to his head: which wig, it is to be presumed, was made of hair, but which looked far more as though it were spun from filaments of silk or glass.

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He loved to lie in the very centre of five millions of people, with his filaments stretching out and running through them, responsive to every little rumor or suspicion of unsolved crime.

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It was composed of stringy filaments saturated with water, like the berries, and devoid of nourishment.

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Filament announced its adoption of the MOBI Vehicle Identity Standard within the Blocket Mobility Platform, which is a turn-key vehicle identity (VID) solution created for integrated vehicle wallet and usage-based applications.

Filament Announces Adoption Of MOBI Vehicle Identity Standard